Thanks for the memories!

As Good As It Gets

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

In my previous reviews on Dickson and Heise's shorts I have often emphasized that many of them featured a talented athlete or dancer performing one of their popular routines. Such is the case with "Annie Oakley" a film featuring (Who else?) Annie Oakley herself. Here, her routine is shooting with accuracy. We see Annie (the true Annie herself) shooting glass balls and shooting holes through coins. And she doesn't miss, either! Truly an amazing show of skill, but much more interesting for the fact it shows a real true historical figure long gone. It's interesting to think how the people at the time actually reacted to this. I'm sure that many actually seen Oakley before in person, but for those who hadn't, well, go on an' visit Edison's Kinetoscope parlor and watch her on film! Also, I suppose this could take its place among the few Edison movies to feature a performer that is still remembered nowadays; most of them aren't.If you're a film buff, watch it for historical significance; if you're a history buff, watch it for seeing the real Oakley in action.

It is first film where someone is starring. And who is starring there? See title of movie. You don't know who is Annie Oakley? I did not know also, but Annie is interesting girl who made her career with gun. Wikipedia says: ''Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Mosey; August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Her "amazing talent"[1] first came to light when the then-15-year-old won a shooting match with traveling-show marksman Frank E. Butler (whom she married). The couple joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show a few years later. Oakley became a renowned international star, performing before royalty and heads of state.'' I am curious, does USA people know who is Annie Oakley, is she recognized know or she is forgotten.

"Annie Oakley" is a very early silent short film and back in 1894 films became more and more popular, even if they were still black-and-white, still running only a few seconds and still silent obviously. Here we see a young woman who shows us how gifted she is with the gun. She has some pretty good precision and hits basically every non-moving target and later on even everything that her assistant throws up in the air. Good job from her. And one big exception for this short film is that the title character is actually still really famous today. Annie got her gun. The director of this film, which is over 120 years old, is William K. Dickson again, a film pioneer. This is not a great film by any means, but thanks to the title character actually a pretty interesting watch. Only for its time though.

A little slice of American History from the Edison Black Maria studio from November of 1894 shows the real life Annie Oakley shooting fixed targets and airbourne tossed glass balls. Truly a fascinating little piece of film that bridges the real Wild West with a theme that was to run through countless fictional movies in the century to follow.